Masks: Birth of Heroes

Gen 2.5 Session 7

As the scene opens, the group is confronted by Blue. Ember starts to charge up. Bilcer puts their ship in their pocket to keep it safe. Atomica and Anansi both charge forward, Atomica to hit her and Anansi to knock the gun aside. Ares, meanwhile, makes Ember invisible. The gun goes off and singes off a letter from the library sign (Continuum City Lib ary). Blue lets go of the gun and slaps a blue disc on Atomica, which saps her energy. From her belt, she pulls out several glass shards and demands to know where Ember went. Bilcer seems to think everything is going well and says they hope the blast doesn’t piss off Ares’s parents. Anansi, meanwhile, tries to talk Blue down and demands to know why she keeps trying to kill people. Blue seems to think Anansi should understand: mole people and future people, for example, and apparently it’s all getting worse because of Ember’s existence. Anansi tells her that the cost is too high, and he’s not going to let Blue kill Ember just to prevent weird shit from happening. She puts the glass shards back in her belt and takes a step back. She assents to having a chat, but she’s convinced that she’ll be able to make them come around to her way of thinking. Anansi takes the device off of Atomica.

Ember, in the meantime, is confused why no one is shooting at her — confused but grateful. Since Ember seems happy to stay hidden, Ares decides to drop the invisibility and try to provoke Blue into attacking Ember. Blue accepts the invitation as a sign that Ares agrees with her, so she leaps into the air and tries to bring a blow down on Ember’s head.

Blue asks if Ares is going to help…and Ares provokes Atomica into trying to hit her again. Anansi steps between them to stop them. Atomica grabs the disc from Anansi and drains it of the energy it was storing, successfully recharging her. She invites Ares, again, to help her, and Ares informs her of her secret plan: that she only provoked her so they wouldn’t have to talk to her anymore. If they’re back to talking, she tells them that she’s going to go get shakes. Blue demands to know if Ember thinks her life is worth endangering others. Ember tells her to fuck off and uses up the rest of her burn to teleport away, where she will take public transportation to get back to the junkyard.

Back to the talking… Apparently, Ember is a fracture that causes space-time to bleed, and that’s why she can do what she does. Atomica tells her it’s because Ember has super-powers, that’s why. Blue pulls out a screen showing all sorts of data on how she’s right. After a few smart remarks, Atomica is able to provoke her into attacking her again, in spite of Anansi’s attempts to talk to her rationally. She disappears for a second, then reappears behind Atomica with her arm around Atomica’s throat. Atomica decides to become a human torch, which burns hot enough to destroy Blue’s equipment. Bilcer tries to point out that Blue’s data was accurate to get the attention of her teammates. Anansi distracts Blue (accidentally) long enough for Atomica to get a good hit in, and Blue crashes into the car. She doesn’t look good. Neither does the car. Anansi manages to convince Atomica to let him take Blue back to the base.

Ares comes back with the shakes at that point. She’s kind of disappointed that the car is broken — she liked it! Bilcer decides to fix the car (after enjoying her bacon and hot sauce (lots of hot sauce) shake), and it is so fixed that it has parts that don’t even exist yet, and it works like a charm!

Meanwhile, Ember is taking the subway back to base when Mikkel texts her to ask her to meet. She meets him at a coffee shop at the end of the subway line. He begs her to help him — he’s been tracked by the same people who attacked them. All Ember has to do is put this bug on Atomica. However, covertly, he tells Ember that “she’s listening” via a bug under his skin. Ember asks if he’ll walk her to the subway, and he agrees.

Back at the base, the team puts Blue down on the medical table. Anansi is able to patch her up so that, at the very least, she’s stable. Ember still isn’t back yet, prompting a series of messages from the team to Ember’s phone. Atomica is pretty pleased that she took out a super villain — Bilcer is dubious about this claim. Ares suggests Bilcer try to hack into the city’s security cameras, just like on NCIS. Bilcer is able to pull up feed of Ember walking down the street with Mikkel. Ares convinces the team that they should go find them to, at least, talk to Mikkel. Atomica underlines how little she likes Mikkel, but she’ll go to keep an eye from the sky. Anansi opts to wait back at the base to keep an eye on Blue.

Ember is making small-talk with Mikkel about her current digs. Ares pulls up alongside them as they’re walking, which startles Mikkel. Ember sends Ares a text telling her to drive fast as soon as they get in. He hesitates to get in when he sees Bilcer, but Ares convinces him to get in. Once in the car, Ares books it for the stadium. Ember powers up as Bilcer turns in their seat (without actually turning around) as Ember uses her power to make the bug burrow out of him. She tosses both bugs out the window. Mikkel begins to panic, because he’s convinced the military will kill him now.

In the air, Atomica sees approaching military vehicles. She decides to distract them by melting their tires. They are definitely, definitely distracted…and reporting her position to headquarters to request for orders. Atomica radios the team to warn them. They tell her to get the hell out and that they can take care of themselves. Atomica flies through the residential section, yanking clothes off of lines between buildings, then dives into a building to switch clothes.

On the street, the first of the humvees has crashed into the street. Ares guns the engine and tells everyone to buckle up. Bilcer slinks out onto the hood of the car, and they act like a cow-catcher to get people out of the way. The military starts to fire strange cannisters at the team. As they detonate, there’s a crackle of energy. Ember suggests invisibling the car. Ares says it would be a lot easier if Mikkel was not in the car, and Ember jumps to his defense. Ares tries it anyway, but Mikkel panics and unleashes a burst of energy that cancels out Ares’s powers. Seeing no choice, Ares pulls over the car and tells everyone to grab her hand so that she can teleport them back to base.

Normally, her teleports are instantaneous. This time, however, there’s a black mist and crackling lightning. Mikkel’s grip slips en route, and he disappears into the black mist. Back at base, Ember has a little melt-down about Mikkel’s disappearance. Bilcer brings up their lost ship, and Ember latches onto the idea since everyone else is being a Negative Nelly…except Ares, who doesn’t seem to care much. Ember takes the ship upstairs and re-shipifies it.

Downstairs, Blue is starting to stir. Anansi disappears into the room to have a one-on-one chat with her. He closes the door behind him. He wakes her up and offers her tea. Immediately, she says that her presence is damaging to the timeline, and she should be home. She suggests he “feel the web”. Normally, he should be able to trace the web in any direction, but Ember’s presence is weighing down this point…and, sooner or later, it will tear. Apparently, future-him told her that she needed to kill Ember, because he wouldn’t be able to. It is possible that if Anansi is able to dedicate enough time to the task, he might be able to find a way to find a solution without killing Ember…but it will only get harder as more and more forces from the future send their troops back to stop her.